Brilliant gamer streamed UFC event by pretending to play a video game

A.J. Lester, a Twitch gamer, gamed the system by streaming a UFC pay-per-view event and pretending to play a video game in the corner of the screen. (YouTube/Extremeyak)

You are not supposed to break the law. That is one thing we all know for sure. But one gamer out there decided he was going to, and he did it in the cleverest way possible.

LiveRaise and Twitch gamer A.J. Lester livestreamed the UFC 218 pay-per-view event on Saturday night, an act that is definitely illegal. But he ended up getting away with it for the entire event! How did that happen? He used Twitch’s very setup against them. On Twitch and similar platforms, you can livestream video games with a little window of yourself actually playing the game in the corner of the screen. Lester managed to fool the copyright hounds by pretending to play a UFC video game. He had a controller in his hand and was pressing buttons and making noises, really trying to sell it.

At certain points, Lester wasn’t even trying. In the clip below (which is still somehow available on Twitter, so watch it while you can), he’s staring at something else until Francis Ngannou knocked out Alistair Overeem. And then he has the best reaction:

Honestly, this whole idea is pretty brilliant. If someone gives that a quick look, it’s easy to assume he’s just playing a game. He’s in the corner holding a controller (most of the time), looking and sounding like he’s actually playing a video game. A close look for more than a few seconds gives the game away, but Lester managed to fool the powers that be for the duration of the event. You’ve gotta give it to him: the guy is creative.

So make no mistake: breaking the law is bad. But at least A.J. Lester did it in style.